how to make a whip | Bullwhips

Yesterday I started work on a 10 foot 12 plait Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Style Bullwhip. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

Then I prepared the handle foundation and attached the core.

After the core I stared working on the 4 plait kangaroo belly. First I cut out the sets for the two plaited bellies, then attached the inner belly set to the handle:

Then I put a bolster over the top of that belly:

After the inner bolster I attached the outer 4 plait kangaroo belly:

That belly gets braided:

And a bolster gets put on top of that:

In the above picture you can see a lot of the tools that I use to make my bolster. I use a straight edge, caliper, and a pen. After the boslter gets attached it’s time to cut the strands for the overlay and do all the strand prep:

The picture above is of the 12 plait overlay set after I’ve done all the strand prep. Now it’s time to start working on plaiting the overlay:

While working on this bullwhip’s overlay I was about 24 inches into the when I noticed a mispliat about 2 inches past the checkerboard plaiting. If the misplait was further down the thong I’d leave it because it’s a cosmetic issue and won’t change how the whip works. But since the misplait was right after the checkerboard it really stood out…so I got to undo the whip and back it up to to just past the handle to fix it, then replait the whip.

I’m hoping that I will have time to get a good chunk of the overlay finished today, I’m going out of town for the long weekend, and dont’ want a half finished overlay hanging around that long.

Louie

http://bullwhips.org

Here’s the process that I currently go through when making my bullwhips.

First I cut out the bellies and overlay from a veg tanned kangaroo hide:

Kangaroo for bullwhip

Then I stretch and pare the strands:

Next I split the kangaroo strands so that they are the same thickness:

The picture below is of all the kangaroo strands that are ready to braid (except for plaiting soap).

Kangaroo belly and overlay sets

At this point I’ve done a lot of work and probably put in about 1 1/2 to 2 hours of work and the the strands pretty much look like when the did when I first cut them out. In reality the strands in the first picture aren’t very straight. Then in the second picture they are straight, but the thickness is wavy. And the third picture’s strands are straight and of an even thickness.

Now for the core, it’s attached to a handle:

Then I attach the belly to the handle:

Finally it’s time to start some braiding! So I plait the inner belly:

After I plait that inner belly it gets rolled between two boards to smooth it out and make it round:

The bullwhip that has been rollled doesn’t look much different in pictures, but the texture of the bullwhip has changed (for the better!).

Now I add a bolster:

After the bolster I add the set for the second plaited belly:

Below is a good picture of the two bellies and the bolster between them:

I finish plaited the 2nd belly:

Then I roll it between two boards to smooth out this layer. It’s very important to roll every plaited layer or you will end up with a funny shaped whip.